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Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ—Small Business Growth in CT

June 08 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Bear’s Smokehouse, community, Connecticut, entrepreneur, Hartford, startup, veterans, Windsor

Jamie and Cheryl McDonald co-founded Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in 2013.

Innovation Destination Website Curator Nan Price sat down with Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ Co-Founder Jamie “The Bear” McDonald to talk about entrepreneurship, small business ownership, and what it takes to make authentic Kansas City-style BBQ. (Rumor has it, Price stayed for lunch—and didn’t bring home any leftovers.)

The fast-growing restaurant chain, which McDonald co-founded with his wife, Cheryl, has been expanding since 2013 and currently has three locations: Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Hartford and Windsor and Bear’s Express in South Windsor.

Construction is currently underway for a Front Street relocation, since the Hartford restaurant has outgrown its Arch Street location. McDonald also signed a lease for a space at Hartford’s Union Station. What’s more, McDonald will be teaming up with Millwright’s chef-owner Tyler Anderson to open a new restaurant, Cook and the Bear, which will be located in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square.

PRICE: In addition to being a competitive eater, have you always had an entrepreneurial side?

McDONALD: I’ve always wanted to own my own business. With starting the restaurants, everything kind of aligned, which allowed the opportunity. It’s going on almost three years now.

PRICE: Right, you launched in 2013.

McDONALD: We started in Windsor at Bart’s Drive-In Restaurant. They allowed us to lease a small area and with very little capital we were able to open the doors. Since day one, it’s just been crazy. We saved every penny we’ve made and used it to finance the buildout for the Arch Street location in Hartford. Then, once these doors were open, we used all the profits to build out the new Windsor spot. We keep continuing that cycle, so at the end of the day, we’re still pretty damn broke! We don’t take home anything. It’s all just reinvested.

PRICE: What kind of work did you do prior to Bear’s?

McDONALD: I worked for United Technologies, mostly in customer service on their aerospace side. The job was technical, so going from that to business ownership is a big difference, but you use all the same principles as any other business. Restaurants just have their own kind of unique spin.

PRICE: Back in 2015, when you received a Business Champions Award for best startup, you mentioned working long hours, seven days a week. Is that still your routine? Has it eased up at all?

McDONALD: No, I’d say it’s probably even more. The workload has changed from just making sure daily operations are happening. Now we have four different spots that are in some phase of construction. That alone keeps me up at night.

PRICE: And you have plans for a food truck too, right?

McDONALD: Yes.

Service with a smile at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Hartford, CT.

PRICE: So this is all ramping up for you at the same time.

McDONALD: Yes. It’s all hitting right now through June. We kicked off a lot of stuff by sponsoring the Hartford Yard Goats at the new baseball stadium in Hartford. Left field is ours.

PRICE: So two questions: Will you continue to expand? And, will you always stay in Connecticut?

McDONALD: Yes, as far as expansion goes. Our big push right now is to solidify everything so far and start looking outside of Connecticut in the fall. We’re thinking maybe Boston or Philadelphia—starting to branch out a little and reach bigger markets.

PRICE: Why was it important for you to have a presence in Hartford?

McDONALD: Because Hartford is expanding. Cheryl worked for a Hartford school district, so she used to drive by Arch Street all the time. She knew that the UConn campus was coming to downtown Hartford, and it just seemed like a good opportunity.

I would’ve never thought when we signed this lease about two years ago that two years later we’d be moving out to a larger space.

PRICE: Speaking of Hartford, you’re involved a lot throughout the community.

McDONALD: I think that is part of how we’ve grown so fast. With the product, you have to have the basics down, but I’ve always believed in corporate responsibility. At the end of the day, the community should benefit just as much from having your business be a part of the community as you do from being there.

It’s all about supporting various charities—especially the local charities—and giving back in that way. For example, we support Open Hearth, a housing and homeless shelter in Hartford, we do a lot of work with them, helping transition folks out of the halfway house. It keeps us busy.

PRICE: You’re also very involved with supporting veterans.

McDONALD: Yes. I served in the Navy, so that’s an important cause for me. Last year we worked to raise money for K9s For Warriors, which provides service dogs for veterans suffering from post 9-11 Post-traumatic Stress Disability or traumatic brain injury.

This year, we are proudly sponsoring free admission for all U.S. veterans and their families for the Travelers Championship.

Nan Price’s lunch at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Harford, CT.

PRICE: Bear’s Smokehouse posts some mouth-watering photos on Facebook and Instagram. In terms of marketing, does social media play a key role?

McDONALD: As far as marketing efforts, we don’t really do any traditional print marketing.

I think small businesses—really any type of business—should be taking full advantage of social media. Facebook isn’t really free anymore; you have to pay to get people to see your posts, but it’s a great tool.

PRICE: Let’s talk about supply and demand. You’re well beyond your original five-year plan. When you don’t plan for that growth rate, how do you meet the demand?

McDONALD: You don’t!

And that’s what people start to figure out. We want to run out of food every day. Some days we’re so busy. It just kind it is what it is. It’s not like a normal restaurant where you can make some more sandwiches or throw another hamburger on, with barbecue everything is paced. We load the smokers at four o’clock in the afternoon, the process is about 24-hours.

PRICE: And it started from your love of genuine Kansas-style barbecue?

McDONALD: My love of food and I like feeding people.

PRICE: Can you discuss any entrepreneurial challenges?

McDONALD: It’s really about finding a good team. Our employees represent the business when I’m not here. If they’re not doing a good job, it doesn’t matter how good the food is, people don’t want bad service.

If you’re going to be an entrepreneur it’s not easy, it’s a sacrifice. You have to be willing to put everything on the line for it.

Even with how busy we are, because we have so much going on with construction and everything else, we’ve cashed in all of our life savings, our 401(k)s, everything to keep the business going. There are times when it was sketchy, but you have to make it over that hump and keep pushing through. That’s the point where I think a lot of businesses fail, they give up too soon.

As far as food, in the restaurant business it’s all about diversifying and being involved a lot. We are out at stadiums and different events. We’ll be out in the food truck. We’re catering. You have to take advantage of any way you can get your food out, you can’t rely on walk-in sales.

Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ Co-Founders Jamie and Cheryl McDonald stand in front of a mural painted by local artist Tao LaBossiere.

Some days it’s slow for no reason, it could be a beautiful day out and it’s just slow. The first thing that crosses your mind then as a business owner is: Oh my God everybody hates us! Or we could have a random day where it’s just slammed. There’s really no rhyme or reason.

PRICE: Any other words of wisdom?

McDONALD: The only other advice I can say is, if you see an opportunity you’ve got to jump on it. You can’t wait until you think the time is perfect. It’s never going to be perfect. All your ducks are never going to be in a row.

Union Station is a good example. They put the space up for bid for proposals and I found out about it the day before proposals were due. I looked at it, did some brainstorming, and said: You know what? Let’s do it. We jumped on it, and now the space is ours. Now I’ve just got to get it working!

PRICE: You seem like the type of person who thrives on simultaneously juggling projects.

McDONALD: Yes. That’s where Cheryl and I really do well together. She’s very detail orientated whereas I am not at all. I like to just keep going, going, going. You have to have a balance like that. It’s going really well.

To learn more about Bear’s Smokehouse, visit bearsbbq.com.

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Entrepreneur Brewers: Broad Brook Brewing Company

May 24 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Broad Brook Brewing Company, Connecticut, entrepreneurs, small business, startup brewing

Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price and MetroHartford Alliance Director of Economic Development John Shemo enjoyed meeting the team and touring Broad Brook Brewing Company in East Windsor, CT.

Broad Brook Co-Founders Eric Mance (left) and Tom Rossing (right) with Sales/Promotion Coordinator Jackie Lanagan (center).

Co-Founders Tom Rossing and Eric Mance shared some of the challenges it takes to get a brewery up and running and Sales/Promotion Coordinator Jackie Lanagan discussed some of the ways Broad Brook Brewing is giving back to the community.

PRICE: Whose idea was it to open a brewery?

ROSSING: The whole thing started at my house in Broad Brook, CT, which is how we came up with the name. I was brewing and Joe Dealba (who is now a Partner/Brewer) started helping out a little bit. Eric joined in and he and I started experimenting with more recipes.

Eventually, we started entering competitions because we wanted to see how good our beer was. We started winning ribbons all over the country. At that point, we realized our beer was good enough for the market, Eric started putting together a business plan, and here we are.

PRICE: What was your mission at the outset?

ROSSING:From the beginning, our basic goal was to put out good-quality, drinkable beer. We wanted to make beer styles people would like and something for everybody.

PRICE: Eric, Tom, do either of you have any business background?

ROSSING: I worked construction. I had my own roofing company. I worked for myself for a lot of years and so did Eric. So it wasn’t like we didn’t know what it takes to run a business.

MANCE: Right. I grew up in a small business environment. My family owns a printing business in Massachusetts. I started my own network consulting business in 2000, which I still operate.

LANAGAN: I love that about them—they were homebrewers with backgrounds in construction, printing, and computers. They had never dealt with the bars, restaurants, package stores. And they’re doing awesome.

PRICE: Let’s talk about the timeline. According to your website, in July 2011 you set a goal to open a brewery. When did you actually open?

Broad Brook Brewing Company has a 240-member mug club—which sold out right away.

ROSSING: We opened in October 2013. But, it was actually July 4, 2011 when we really got going. We stopped competitions at that time because we already knew the beer was good. Then we started getting involved with the CT Beer Trail and doing tastings. By doing the tastings, people were able to meet us and try the beer. It was also great marketing.

PRICE:But at this point, you weren’t actually a full-fledged brewery, correct?

ROSSING: Correct. We spent two years marketing ourselves by making beer, going out and presenting it to people at all these different tastings. We marketed ourselves as homebrewers—we couldn’t sell a drop.

MANCE: We were trying to build a brand and a name before we could even legally sell anything. So we would brew beer on the weekends and then we would find places we could serve it to the public as homebrewers. We kept getting better and better reactions from people, which helped solidify the business concept.

ROSSING: But we also hit the ground running.

MANCE: The day we opened we had a following. People were waiting for us to open because they already knew about the beer.

PRICE: Let’s talk about the business growth and reach. Are you only distributing in Connecticut?

ROSSING: We’re distributing in the entire state of Connecticut and western Massachusetts.

PRICE: And what are your future plans? Do you plan to distribute further?

ROSSING: Yes, we plan on going further east into Massachusetts and probably north into Vermont.

MANCE: We probably have to grow into another facility because we’re running out of space.

ROSSING: We’re maxing out at this facility. We’ve been swapping 15-barrel for 30-barrel tanks. You have to meet your demand. Going out of stock is never a good thing. If your product keeps going out of stock you’ll lose your tap lines. The stores don’t like it and neither do the customers.

We’re meeting our goals, as far as our growth, which went faster than we anticipated. We’re keeping up and we want to continue to keep up so we don’t run out of stock.

PRICE: When you talk about your goals, clearly you sat down and had a business plan with milestones you wanted to reach.

MANCE: Yes. And we are exceeding those—far exceeding those.

LANAGAN: And like Eric said, right now we’re looking at southern Vermont and eastern Massachusetts. We’ll choose a couple of events, see how we do there, and test the market that way.

PRICE: Speaking of marketing, you’re obviously still going to events. Are you still doing tastings?

LANAGAN: Absolutely. We’re at package stores, festivals, events, beer dinners. We also rely on social media.

PRICE: You also get the word out through a lot of charity events.

LANAGAN: A lot of the events we do are nonprofit. I would say 70% of the events that we do outside of the building are charity-related. We give to the MS Society, Boys and Girls Club, Wounded Warriors, and Five Corner Cupboard, to name a few.

We’re also involved with the Thread City Hop Fest, which is organized by Willimantic Brewery. The annual event features more than 40 local brewers and proceeds benefit local charities.

PRICE: We talked a little bit about supply and demand as being a challenge. What other challenges have you encountered as a startup and do you have any advice for those who are starting out?

MANCE: Good luck!

ROSSING: It seems nowadays everybody thinks that it’s the goose that laid the golden egg. They’ll do the social media but really they need to get out and meet people too. It’s not as easy as it all seems.

And you should probably test market your product so you know what you need to do or what you need to improve on before you actually open your brewery.

SHEMO: Any challenges around distribution?

LANAGAN: We have five different distributors, so with each area there are different challenges. Every area has different styles of beer they are looking for and there are different types of people, so you have to adjust according to the area you’re distributing to.

SHEMO: Who distributes for you in Western Massachusetts?

LANAGAN: It’s commercial distribution.

SHEMO: Is distributing out of state an additional challenge?

LANAGAN: It’s different. There are different laws.

MANCE: There’s more paperwork and additional licensing.

ROSSING: The biggest thing isn’t if you have a good product or you have a good taproom or you have good bottling, that’s not it, but the distribution is. It’s a whole different beast.

LANAGAN: We’re lucky, they chose great distributors for each area. They’re all working pretty well for us.

SHEMO: How about availability of hops? How does that work for you?

ROSSING: You’ve got to guess and you’ve got to plan ahead. As a new brewery, that’s a difficult thing. If you’re homebrewing you have availability to all the different hops. Once you start getting to this level, you need contracts and then there’s spot buying. You’ve got to plan years ahead and figure out what you might need. Then if the supplies you want aren’t available, you have to change your recipe and figure out how you’re going to cross-reference things to make things work based on what you can actually get.

SHEMO: So this is a big deal?

ROSSING: Oh, it is a big deal.

MANCE: There’s a lot of variation year-to-year with the yield and the quality of the hops themselves. So there are those challenges as well.

ROSSING: So basically if you’re going to do it, do your homework.

MANCE: Yes, just prepare as much as possible.

ROSSING: What’s that expression? Double your timeframe and triple your budget. It’s a whole big adventure.

MANCE: But once you’re there and everything is going well, it’s worth it.

PRICE: Do you feel like that messy part is kind of behind you now, two years in?

ROSSING: Absolutely. We’re stable. We know what’s going on. We know the process now too if we have to get something approved.

When you’re starting out, you really have to be ready. You have to be very proactive, on top of everything, and willing to sacrifice a lot of time and effort. Just like any other startup.

And reinvest your capital. If you see money coming and you just keep taking it, you’re never going to grow. That’s a mistake a lot of people make in the beginning. Capital improvement is huge, especially in the very beginning.

This business is recession-proof. When times are good people drink; when times are bad they drink some more. Craft beer is growing and increasing its growth percentages every year. It’s a good thing, people like it, and I think it’s here to stay.

PRICE: There’s definitely a demand for it.

LANAGAN: In the meantime, they’re helping local businesses around them too. A lot of the work they’ve done in the tasting room is from local people.

MANCE: It’s a small business mentality: I’ll help you, you help me, and we all help each other. We’ll help the community too, as we go down that road.

Find out more about Broad Brook Brewing, visit http://broadbrookbrewing.

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Hartford Farm To Street Dinner

May 12 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Back East Brewing Company, community, Connecticut, Hartford, Hartford Prints!

The second annual Farm To Street Dinner will take place Saturday, June 25 at 6:00 p.m. Hosted by reSET Impact Award recipient Hartford Prints!, ON20, and Hartford Food System, the outdoor, pop-up community event celebrates the city of Hartford.

“The spirit behind Farm To Street is to highlight Hartford’s unique cultural scene by partnering our city’s local businesses, non-profits, and community members through a unique and exciting experience,” explains Callie Gale Heilmann, Middle Sister at Hartford Prints!

“We set out to organize this event because we thought if people can sit down to eat together, they can sit down to grow our city together,” she adds. “This event is for anyone who has a youthful spirit, a vision, and a civic mind. It is also for anyone who loves food!”

Last year, the event involved 160 people, who sat down to one long communal table on Pratt Street in downtown Hartford. This year, the event will seat more than 200 guests for a farm-to-street outdoor dinner on Trinity Street in Hartford.

The Farm To Street dinner includes local fare, culture, and industry. All guests are asked to BYOD (Bring Your Own Dinner). The ticket price includes a local, seasonal first course and dessert catered by ON20 and beverages from Back East Brewing Company and T Edward Wines.

Seating is first come, first served. All tickets are sold online. No tickets will be sold at the event. All proceeds benefit Hartford Food System, an urban food advocacy organization.

Purchase tickets at hartfordprints.com/farmtostreet.

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Connecticut Startup Business Success: Krust Pizza Bar

April 28 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Connecticut, entrepreneur, Greater Hartford, Krust, Middletown, pizza, startup, StartUP Bristol

Krust Pizza Bar co-owners Rich Garcia and Kevin Wirtes met while working at The Hartford. Their passions for cooking and bourbon—combined with job changes—encouraged them to explore their dream of owning a restaurant. The busy entrepreneurs met with Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price to discuss how they launched their startup, some challenges to running a business, and their recent StartUP Bristol award.

PRICE: Do either of you recall thinking: I want to own a business or, I really think I’m an entrepreneur?

Krust Pizza owners Kevin Wirtes (left) and Rich Garcia.

WIRTES: Personally, I’ve always known. I was the kid who had tag sales and shoveled driveways. I’ve always known I wanted to make money for myself and have a business. I guess I never knew how it would come to me. I don’t know how you feel about entrepreneurship, Rich?

GARCIA: It was kind of the same journey for me. I did all those things as a child too. I was always looking to get money more than my allowance.

PRICE: You both had project management jobs at The Hartford. How have you taken those skills and applied them to running a restaurant?

GARCIA: It’s exactly like a restaurant.

WIRTES: We took a much more macro management approach. We ask for a lot of data back from our employees so we know what to do with it.

We try to run the business as if everyone wants to be here. We’re all trying to work together. We are the rudders that steer the ship in the slow movements towards the gulf and we expect them to make the faster movements when we are not here.

GARCIA: We instill a lot of trust in our staff. We had a really big transition about eight months ago. Kevin and I kind of pulled back from our day-to-day operations. From day one, I was cooking and Kevin was bartending every single day. So we started trying to pull that back a little so we could focus on growing the business and managing.

WIRTES: There’s no way to see the big picture if you’re a cog. We decided we really needed to remove ourselves. It was tough. And sometimes I feel like it wasn’t the right thing because we are the face of this place. People come to see Rich cooking and me making drinks. He developed the food menu. I developed the cocktail menu. But it was a business decision. It was the right one because we can now see the forest through the trees.

GARCIA: But with cooking and bartending, in the beginning it was really important to us to be on our feet because we’ve never done this before. This is our first business venture together.

PRICE: You opened in 2013. Since then, you’ve doubled in size. How are you getting the word out?

WIRTES: Social media. I once told Rich: If this was 15 years ago, I don’t know how we’d be doing this because we reach so many people through social media. Facebook is a great platform. We have more than 10,000 Facebook followers.

GARCIA: We put most of our money into Facebook because we see immediate results.

PRICE: How are you collaborating with the local community and other restaurants?

GARCIA: We use Hartford Baking Company for their brioche buns. We also use Liuzzi Angeloni Cheese, which is out of Hamden, CT. We use ton of local farms. It’s very important to us.

WIRTES: We also support a lot of Connecticut breweries. The brewery scene in Connecticut is blowing up. The beer is really good. It’s not just that is from Connecticut, it’s actually really good beer. So we’re definitely big on supporting Connecticut locally. That’s what we are. We are a small business in Connecticut.

PRICE: Let’s talk about StartUP Bristol. You recently received a $22,500 award—congratulations. How did you become involved?

GARCIA: We’re good friends with Adam von Gootkin, Co-Founder of Onyx Spirits. He lives in Bristol and is on the StartUP Bristol committee. Adam had befriended Justin Malley, the Economic Development Executive Director in Bristol who created the StartUP Bristol campaign and committee.

Adam introduced us to StartUP Bristol. We knew the town, but we didn’t really know what was going on there. We got excited talking to Adam and Justin because they’re really passionate about Bristol and making it a better place to do business. Justin encouraged us to join the program and we started researching it.

WIRTES: It felt like the right fit. It feels like a town that’s embracing us. In a way it's kind of exciting for us to go to Bristol because there's no scene.

PRICE: So you can make a scene, so to speak.

Woodfired, Neapolitan-style pizza from Krust.

WIRTES: Right, which is fun. It’s good because we want that big neighborhood vibe, getting people attached to us.

PRICE: So does this mean you’re planning to open another restaurant?

WIRTES: Yes. We are looking at a location, I think part of this grant from StartUP Bristol is that we do operate a business in the town.

PRICE: That’s exciting.

WIRTES: We are excited. We’re kind of treating this one like “Krust light” in that we want to be able to manage both restaurants successfully.

GARCIA: We don’t want to overextend ourselves.

WIRTES: Some places go bigger on their second restaurant. We plan to go smaller, make it more manageable, and implement some of the efficiencies we’ve learned here in Middletown. This place took a while to become efficient probably because we were learning along the way. At one point, we actually started tapping into our corporate life as far as the processes and procedures we learned. All that stuff does have a place, we just don’t want to have 10 meetings a day about it.

We’re happy. We’re hungry for the next space. I hope down the road we can be involved with helping entrepreneurs—kind of like what Adam is doing, be on a board where we’re handing money out. That would be awesome.

PRICE: I’ve heard that a lot before. People who receive mentoring want to give it back.

GARCIA: Absolutely.

WIRTES: Connecticut is evolving and changing. I think it’s pretty awesome. I really feel like there’s a heartbeat going on in Connecticut.

GARCIA: I feel like there’s a lot of younger entrepreneurs in Connecticut too. I never saw that before. Before, if I thought of someone opening a business I tended to think of somebody older. But there’s a lot of young people starting companies—look at Adam. It’s nice to see that for sure. It’s good seeing young energy.

WIRTES: Which is one of the reasons we want to be involved with Hartford at some point—because we think Hartford’s got this resurgence going on I know I want to be tapped into. I would love to see Hartford be this destination city.

We definitely have dreams of owning multiple Krust and multiple other types of restaurants. We’re focusing on Bristol next. But Hartford has been on our list a few.

GARCIA: I’d like to have some sort of presence in Hartford.

PRICE: Do you have any advice for people starting out?

WIRTES: It’s possible. It doesn’t take as much as you think. We had a lot of people tell us in the beginning: You need like half $1 million to open a business. We sat down we did the numbers and realized that wasn’t necessarily true.

GARCIA: We could’ve easily spent half $1 million.

WIRTES: But we saved a lot by being our own general contractors. As far as entrepreneurs who are thinking about doing something like this, I mean...

GARCIA: Do it with a partner you trust.

WIRTES: Definitely do it with a partner you trust, but I say go for it. Especially if you’re younger, you have plenty of time to fail and pick yourself back up.

GARCIA: Our mantra was: What do we have to lose?

WIRTES: We really believed in ourselves and we knew that we had something to offer. Good atmosphere, good prices, good food. You have all these things to choose from. Are you going to hit all of them? Some of them? We see some places open up, they put the open sign on and expect people to come running. It’s not like that at all. We spent a lot of time drumming up business and getting people excited about what we were doing before we were even open.

GARCIA: Proper planning is important. And you have to be passionate about what you’re doing.

PRICE: I hear that word a lot.

GARCIA: I think it comes through with the product. You got to show people you’re passionate.

WIRTES: Then there’s that customer service fine line of standing by your products and bending toward them, that’s something we’re learning along the way. We want everyone to leave happy, but you can’t make everyone happy. It’s impossible.

PRICE: So it’s more important to have a little bit of a tough skin?

WIRTES: Exactly.

For Krust Pizza Bar menu, hours, and location, visit www.krustpizzabar.com.

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Entrepreneur Brewer: Relic Brewing

April 19 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: brewery, business growth, Connecticut, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, small business, startup

Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price took a tour of Relic Brewing in Plainville, CT and talked to Founder Mark Sigman about marketing to a niche audience, choosing a distributor, and getting a startup brewery off the ground.

PRICE: Did you always want to start a brewery?

SIGMAN: I always wanted to own my own business. When I reached a point in my life where it was realistic, I researched a lot of different business opportunities. In the end the one I thought was most viable was opening a brewery.

Mark Sigman is Founder of Relic Brewing in Plainville, CT.

PRICE: So you didn’t necessarily know you were going to be brewing beer?

SIGMAN: I used to live in Colorado and Wyoming. Out there the beer scene is more mature and I became very used to living in close proximity to breweries. When I moved back to Connecticut, where I had originally grown up, I missed the fact that there were no breweries nearby. Even the beer selection in the stores was more limited than I was used to and I thought something could be done about that.

PRICE: So that was part of your reason to start the business?

SIGMAN: Yes, that was part of the reason. There was clear opportunity and there was also a clear model to follow that I’d learned from living out west.

PRICE: How did the brewery get started? Is it just you or do you have a business partner?

SIGMAN: It’s just me. I funded everything myself with my 401(k). I spent about a third to half of it initially to get a really small thing going.

At the time when I started the brewery, I went through a lot of licensing—it takes about a year of licensing and waiting. I planned to start small because I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to leave my full-time computer programming job and, at the time, I wasn’t sure if Connecticut would even welcome a small brewery.

PRICE: And this was what year?

SIGMAN: This was in 2011. The licensing kept getting delayed, so we didn’t actually open until February 2012. But I was building this place out in 2011. I started with a very small brewing system without all the tanks I have now. It was an experiment. And I didn’t quit my job. I kept my job full-time for a while, then I went part-time.

PRICE: Tell us about the opening.

SIGMAN: I didn’t do any advertising. I just listed the brewery on the CT Beer Trail website. I didn’t even do any social media in the beginning. And we were just mobbed. I got calls from all over Connecticut. Everyone wanted to carry our beer. It was unbelievable—the demand and the reception.

PRICE: Wow! Why do you think that was?

SIGMAN: I think mostly just because we were new. No one had opened a new brewery for long, so when someone did, it just blew people out of the water. And the thing was, I didn’t forecast any of that. I didn’t open with enough product. We would run out every weekend.

PRICE: That was in 2012. How has the brewery evolved since then? Do you have any employees now?

SIGMAN: In early July 2012 I quit my part-time job. By that summer, I realized I had to get bigger, so I set my sights on taking over the additional space in this building.

The space is much bigger now. I have one employee, Stephanie. She works at the brewery a couple of days a week. The rest of the time she’s on the road doing sales.

As we grew, we started making a lot more beer and we started selling a lot more around the state. Most other breweries have sales people. People who are the beer buyers—especially at higher-volume bars, restaurants, and liquor stores—get approached by a lot of different breweries that want them to carry their beer. Buyers make decisions based on quality and other things. It’s become more of a traditional business, which means building relationships, networking, knowing the right people, and even cold calling. Where in the beginning, it didn’t even matter because the product was so rare. It was so new, there was no competition. Everyone just wanted our beer.

PRICE: You said the product was “so rare.” What is so unique about your beer?

SIGMAN: Traditionally, when someone opens a brewery, they have three or four varieties available, most of which are pretty traditional. When we opened, we went more along the model of what they’re doing in Colorado and Wyoming. We didn’t really have a flagship, we just brewed different kinds of beers and we changed them all the time. We wanted to be more creative and we wanted the styles we brewed to be untraditional.

PRICE: To wit, a Thrillist article, “The Most Underrated Brewery in Every State,” notes that, Relic Brewing will “have a new stout available in two versions: with and without coffee. Because why not. That’s the beauty of Relic: beers show up for a weekend and are never seen again.”

Relic Brewing takes pride in its artistic beer labels.

SIGMAN: Right. The English ale we opened with, Antiquity, is an old ale. It’s a specific style that most people have never even heard of it. In the beginning, we were really targeting a niche audience of beer geeks. We didn’t try to focus on more of a mass market audience because we knew we couldn’t man it. We were able to reach our niche market really quickly through the very specific media they follow.

So we had hundreds and hundreds of beer geeks from all over visit our tasting room. They definitely spread the word and we immediately got so much recognition in the beer scene around New England.

We are becoming a little more well-known. In fact, Food and Wine magazine recently named us the best nanobrewery in Connecticut.

PRICE: Where do you see the future of the brewery?

SIGMAN: After I upgraded the system and got the space working really well we increased the number of people who came to visit us and really got our tasting room rolling. I reached a point where there weren’t enough hours in the day. I couldn’t do more bottles or kegs and circulate them and brew and do everything. I knew at that point I needed to start planning for another type of expansion.

It’s really expensive to upgrade. But there was also the option of brewing off site. I was approached by Thomas Hooker Brewery, which is a much bigger brewery out in Bloomfield, CT. They do some of their own brews, but they brew beer for other people too.

In 2015 I did 10 batches at Thomas Hooker Brewery. They do all the bottling for me, but it’s definitely a very hands-on experience. This year I think we’ll do 16 or 17 batches. It’s significant growth. The batches there are 40 barrels and the ones we do at Relic Brewing are three barrels.

PRICE: That really puts it into context.

SIGMAN: It makes it so that we can really have a presence. We are probably in at least 400 liquor stores and, at any given time, about 100 different bars in Connecticut and Boston.

PRICE: Can we talk about some of the challenges to get Relic Brewery up and running?

SIGMAN: In the beginning I was determined to self-distribute. Once I started to do offsite batches, I knew I couldn’t distribute it myself, or it would be extreme effort to do such a thing.

It’s a tough choice for breweries. Some decide they’re going to be in the business of distribution and in the business of brewing beer—this means you have to buy trucks and invoicing software to track accounts. It almost becomes two separate businesses. And I didn’t want to do that.

I decided to focus on beer brewing and let the distribution people do the distributing. I chose a small, boutique distributor in Connecticut. It was a decision that was mostly based on personal preference because I didn’t want to go with someone who was handling the larger companies.

I immediately realized the choice hurt us, because the distributor didn’t have that many accounts, they didn’t have the wide reach. Now they’ve been open for a few years, they have a much deeper penetration, and our sales are better. So I made a risky move. Choosing them definitely hurt our growth in the beginning, but it’s okay now.

PRICE: Any other challenges?

SIGMAN: The most critical thing is being properly capitalized to actually do something. We’ve been constantly undercapitalized.

One example is when we went to do the bigger batches. Most breweries wouldn’t have done it the way we did it. Not only would they have most likely chosen the biggest, most powerful distributors that have the gigantic reach and marketing capabilities, they would have also opened with at least three beers to maintain a shelf presence.

PRICE: And you opened with?

SIGMAN: One.

Other breweries open with a tremendous amount of draft beer and sort a flood the entire market. They also open with a decent marketing budget. So there is a whole strategy to a launch.

PRICE: And you hadn’t done that.

SIGMAN: No. I didn’t do anything like that.

PRICE: But you’re still successful, in ways.

SIGMAN: Well, it takes a long time. It’s completely different. That’s how you do it right. We did everything wrong. It’s all because of undercapitalization.

PRICE: Let’s go back to the topic of marketing. How are you getting your name out there?

SIGMAN: We’ve been open for four years in February, so we are one of the oldest, and we don’t have great name recognition.

We’ve done a really good job targeting the really hardcore beer enthusiasts. Around the entire state they know who we are and have probably tried our product. But that’s a tiny subset of the actual beer drinkers.

Connecticut has one of the highest per capita craft beer drinkers now. In New Haven county, about 30% of the market is craft beer. Nationwide it’s more like 18%. So it’s really high. Hartford is about 27%. So there are a lot of craft beer drinkers in Connecticut and the vast majority of them have no idea who we are.

PRICE: How do you change that?

SIGMAN: That’s been our challenge. In the beginning I didn’t care because I had people who wanted our niche beer. Once we grew, I thought I could do the bigger batches and still have the success I wanted, but doesn’t quite work like that. You have to think about it a lot more. Once you’re brewing that much beer, you have to think about the wider market and reaching a more mainstream beer consumer. And that wasn’t something I’d even thought about.

That’s one of the reasons I hired Stephanie, because we needed help with sales. We needed someone on the road. If most of the mainstream consumers have no idea who Relic Brewing is, then a lot of the liquor stores, bars, and restaurants also have no idea who we are.

The craft beer market now is so giant you really have to reach your average person. The vast majority of people who live in Plainville have no idea we are here, even though we’ve been on tap at J. Timothy’s since the day we opened. Is been like that for years. A lot of people have drank our beer and they may not even know that we are from Plainville.

The name recognition thing is challenging, but that’s what leads to liquor store sales. Our bar sales are through the roof. Our liquor store sales are improving, but not as good as they could be.

The newer breweries have done a much better job with name recognition. What we have had on our side is our beer. We make really unique, good-quality beer. It’s always gotten good ratings and respect from different people. We do well with that. We get lots of demand for events. People still want it. We will send 30 kegs to the distributor and they are gone in a day.

PRICE: Going back to name recognition—how do you improve that?

SIGMAN: I talked to some of the other breweries and they told me: You’ve got to have tastings at liquor stores. Most people won’t even buy anything without tasting it first. Now we have Stephanie doing tastings every Friday.

If you’re not doing tastings no one’s buying your stuff. Of course some people still take a chance. But, that’s what the liquor stores want. They know that their customers like it and it leads to more sales for them. That whole cycle has really taken hold at the liquor stores. So hiring Stephanie has been really helpful with that.

PRICE: I have heard that from other breweries. They say get your product out there and let them taste it and then realize they like it.

SIGMAN: Doing tastings has made a significant difference in moving the cases of product for the most part. So that’s been helpful and really choosing the right beers that move the fastest.

PRICE: So you’re really learning as you go.

SIGMAN: Right. To be successful you have to change, you have to keep pace with the industry.

Learn more about tasting hours and beers available at Relic Brewing by visiting www.relicbeer.com.

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A New Home for Connecticut Food Entrepreneurs

April 07 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: community, Connecticut, culinary, food entrepreneur, startup success

Liz and Bruce Hoffman are setting out to create an entrepreneurial culinary revolution in Connecticut. The couple launched their startup ThymeShare a year and a half ago with the mission to provide a space for entrepreneur chefs, caterers and home-based businesses to invent, experiment and grow.

On September 3, 2015, the Hoffmans signed the lease for 485 Main Street, Hartford. They expect to open in January, 2016. The five-year plan is to replicate ThymeShare in every urban city in New England.

According to the ThymeShare website, the business concept is to offer a complete culinary solution that facilitates small business growth, supports the community ,and enhances the city of Hartford.

“ThymeShare is a small business that believes in small business,” emphasizes Liz Hoffman, Co-Founder and President.

Liz, who has a marketing background, supported her husband Bruce’s idea for the company and helped develop the business plan, which includes a pop-up 110-seat restaurant and celebrity chef competitions.

With his operations and Six Sigma credentials, Bruce acts as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of ThymeShare. The couple combined their talents, passions and funds to get the business off the ground. Both quit full-time jobs to pursue their dream.

“We believe so much in what we’re doing. We’re 100% committed and involved,” says Bruce.

“We are so close to our vision,” adds Liz.

GETTING TO THE HEART OF HARTFORD

The couple developed ThymeShare around their love of all things culinary. They also tried to approach the business concept by trying to determine a type of business that would succeed in Hartford.

“We asked ourselves, what’s Hartford’s identity?” Bruce recalls. “It used to be insurance and manufacturing, but there is always one staple: food.”

The Hoffmans, who were both born in New Britain, CT, purposely chose to locate the business in Hartford. “It’s our way of giving a little spark back to Hartford,” says Bruce.

“There are so many avenues for growth here in Hartford,” Liz pointed out. “For instance, you can lease land for urban farming to provide an urban farm-to-table experience. Plus, we are close to public transportation.”

UTILIZING CONNECTICUT STARTUP RESOURCES

The Hoffmans worked closely with Tammy Warner, Business Advisor at the Connecticut Small Business Development Center (CTSBDC). “Tammy really helped us focus and acted as sounding board, poking holes in our business model,” says Liz.

The couple also consulted with Connecticut-area executive chefs to be onsite resources. “No one knows everything,” Liz acknowledged. “It’s important to surround yourself with the right people with tools, resources and knowledge.”

There were a lot of obstacles to getting ThymeShare up and running. For example, the space needed to be health-code compliant, explained Bruce.

With regard to funding, the couple put in about $100,000 of their own equity. They met with Stephen Cole, Hartford’s Director of Economic Development Division, Department of Development Services, who referred them to Hartford Economic Development Corp. (HEDCO), where they were able to obtain a $150,000 line of credit.

The Hoffmans also worked with the Spanish American Merchants Association, Inc. (SAMA), a nonprofit organization that serves as a vehicle for the economic growth of Connecticut-based businesses. The organization was created to help business people, especially Latinos, develop a better understanding of economic principles.

Rosa Jacinto, Loan Officer and Small Business Specialist at SAMA was “our biggest cheerleader,” Bruce says.

One of the goals with ThymeShare was to have no external investors. “We didn’t want anyone to dilute our vision,” Bruce underscored. The Hoffmans also plan to turn ThymeShare into a B Corporation by January 2016.

“A typical corporation has a board that is focused on profits and can take measures to remove people regardless of the vision,” explains Liz. “Making ThymeShare into a B Corporation allows our mission to stay pure—the priority is maintaining the vision rather than solely focused on profits,” she continued.

“Our vision would be both for profit as well as charitable commitments,” adds Bruce.

COLLABORATING WITH CONNECTICUT STARTUP COMPANIES

ThymeShare will be working with FRESH Farm Aquaponics to structure a fish tank within the space that will act as a sustainable ecosystem. FRESH Farm Aquaponics is working with Connecticut entrepreneurs to use aquaponics to cultivate a sustainable food future in many communities.

PHILANTHROPIC ENTREPRENEURS

Liz and Bruce Hoffman launched their startup ThymeShare around their love of all things culinary.

In addition to supporting culinary startups, the Hoffmans will give 20% of their revenue back to charity. They also intend to build their staff with what Liz refers to as “non-violent second chancers” as well as veterans recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “We feel it’s important to give back to veterans,” she emphasized.

The Hoffmans plan to have eight to 10 full-time employees with benefits and 12-14 part-time employees who will work 20 to 25 hours a week and earn $14 an hour, explained Bruce. “We see these individuals as our future,” he stressed. “With everyone we plan to hire, no one is stuck in one position washing dishes or cleaning up. There is room to grow.”

Another way ThymeShare plans to give back is through a non-profit culinary camp geared toward nine to 13 year olds, which will be funded through grants. “We want to break the cycle of the social welfare system and provide opportunities,” says Liz.

HELPING FOOD ENTREPRENEURS MAKE THEIR VISIONS A REALITY

Along with charitable giving and providing a place to test business assumptions, ThymeShare will also offer business classes to culinary entrepreneurs.

“True entrepreneurs work with the right resources to create a reality out of their vision,” says Bruce.

“Most new restaurants fail,” he continues. “The idea behind the pop-up restaurant is to help entrepreneurs who want to open a restaurant—they can use the space to test their concept. Once they are successful here, they can build a following and stay in Hartford.”

“It takes a leader to say: I know what I want to do, but I don’t know everything,” adds Liz. “To build your dream, it takes a tribe. It truly takes a village.”

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Entrepreneur Brewer: Still Hill Brewery, Rocky Hill, CT

March 17 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: brewery, business growth, Connecticut, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, small business, startup

Scott Barbanel, Head Brewer and Founder of Still Hill Brewery, has always had an entrepreneurial drive. He got the passion for home brewing about seven years ago after brewing on a home kit he received as a Father’s Day gift. The combination is paying off. The brewery opened its doors in early February as the first microbrewery in Rocky Hill, CT. Barbanel told Innovation Destination Hartford about the brewery’s future plans and offered advice entrepreneurs who are starting out.

IDH: Give us some background—did you always have an entrepreneurial drive?

BARBANEL: My business back ground is Accounting, Information Technology and Human Relations. I’m currently the controller of a small manufacturer/distributor in Westfield, MA as well as working here at Still Hill Brewery.

I come from an entrepreneurial family so I guess that part has always been in place. The brewery idea came about after friends and family started to drink beer I produced at home. They put the bug in my head that I should open a brewery. I got more and more educated and brewed more and more beer. I realized I could open a brewery. I started seriously looking for a location and investors about four or five years ago.

Still Hill Brewery Co-Founders Scott and Sue Barbanel (left) with Hartford artist Tao LaBossiere and his wife, Amy.

IDH: Still Hill Brewery recently opened its doors. Tell us about the brewery’s growth and business reach.

BARBANEL: It has taken off quickly and I find myself brewing to keep up with the tap room demand. We are primarily a packaging brewery. Our goal is to produce beer to be distributed to restaurants and bars and eventually package stores. We love being in the Rocky Hill community, which has been so welcoming.

IDH: Why Connecticut?

BARBANEL: Connecticut is where my wife is from. We moved here from Massachusetts about 11 years ago. Craft beer is an emerging market here in Connecticut. Its growth has been explosive in the last few years. Along with the tremendous growth in craft beer in Connecticut, there is a strong market desire for locally crafted beers. It’s the perfect time to start a brewery in Connecticut.

IDH: Where do you see your company in the next few years? Do you plan to distribute outside of Connecticut?

BARBANEL: We’re looking to distribute throughout Connecticut over the next three years and hope to distribute regionally beyond that. It would be great if we got to the point of distributing regionally and throughout New England. That is one of our goals.

IDH: Any tips for aspiring entrepreneurs or startup business owners?

BARBANEL: Double your contingency funds and remember, you can never have just enough capital! Pad your opening date, it seems there’s always something pushing your opening back. Always remember that no one else has

The crowd enjoyed fresh Still Hill beers and food from Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ at the Tap Room Reception event March 13, 2016.

the sense of urgency you do when getting all the necessary tasks accomplished, so plan accordingly. Take lots of deep breaths and keep sight of your goal. And when you get all stressed out, stop by our tap room to relax with a locally crafted beer!

Hartford artist Tao LaBossiere of The Art of Tao LaBossiere, created the mural for Still Hill Brewery, which was unveiled at a Tap Room Reception event March 13, 2016.

The Still Hill Brewery taproom is open Fridays from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. afternoons noon to 6. For more information, visit www.stillhillbrewery.com.

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Hartford Baking Company: Entrepreneurial Success in Hartford County

March 08 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: community, Connecticut, entrepreneur, Hartford, Hartford Baking Company

Scott Kluger, Founder of Hartford Baking Company at the Knox Inc. Harvest Farmers Market in Hartford, CT. (Photo courtesy Kayla Angeletti)

Scott Kluger, Founder of Hartford Baking Company, didn’t set out to be a cook or a baker—but he did always have an entrepreneurial drive.

The West Hartford, CT native was born in Simsbury and says he is very familiar with the area. Kluger went to the University of Connecticut, where he studied finance and economics. At the time he says he “had his eyes on Wall Street.”

It was during graduate school at Fordham University in New York City when Kluger became really involved with food and cooking. He worked in restaurants before landing a job on Wall Street after he had earned his Master’s degree.

Kluger worked in mortgage-backed security analysis from 2006 until 2009. “I was on the front of the lines of recession at the most amazing time in history,” he says, but remembers wondering, “What am I doing?”

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

In September 2009, Kluger made a career choice to do something with food. He left his position in New York and moved back to West Hartford, CT. “I knew I wanted to do something entrepreneurial. My original idea was to do something resale, like a factory,” he recalls.

The idea of food—and more specifically baking—continued to resonate with him. “My mom is a phenomenal cook and baker, non-professional. A lot of the Hartford Baking Company recipes are from her,” Kluger says.

Kluger felt it was important to learn to bake bread. He spent about a year learning the process and apprenticing at Billings Forge in Hartford and Copper Beach Inn in Ivoryton, CT. Kluger notes that his original business plan didn’t involve him baking, but he wanted to know the process.

In March 2009 he came up with the business concept for Hartford Baking Company. “My parents were concerned,” Kluger recalls, so I created a business plan and pitched it to them.”

STARTUP STRATEGY AND BUSINESS GROWTH

Kluger signed the lease for Hartford Baking Company in April 2010 and opened “quietly” in September with a team of four people. “I had no idea what I was doing,” he admits. “We didn’t even have a sign.”

The busy lunch crowd scene at Hartford Baking Company’s New Park Avenue location in West Hartford, CT.

The quiet opening was intentional, he explained. “We wanted to get a feel for everything first, so we purposefully kept the opening small and quiet until the business became more refined.”

Since 2010, the Hartford Baking Company has grown to 30 employees. “The first five years were educational,” says Kluger. “Now we know what we’re doing.”

Kluger remembers doing 50-hour shifts in the very beginning “I was baking from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and then making deliveries,” he recalls. “I’ve done every single job here at Hartford Baking Company.”

In the beginning he admits to having no experience running a business or managing. “Great work ethic has gotten me through,” he notes.

That and linear, slow growth. The company eventually applied for a loan through the Department of Economic and Community Development Small Business Express program. Kluger wanted to use the funding toward a commissary in Bloomfield, CT. “With the funding, we were required to create four full-time positions. We ended up creating 15.”

The commissary in Bloomfield opened at the end of 2013. “This is where bread and pastries are made—everything from scratch,” explains Kluger, adding that the space has “tremendous capacity.”

The wholesale side is a huge part of our business, he notes. Harford Baking Company started supplying in Hartford County and now supplies over the state and Southern Massachusetts.

PUTTING “HARTFORD” INTO THE HARTFORD BAKING COMPANY

For Kluger, it was imperative that “Hartford” be very much a part of the Hartford Baking Company’s identity. He notes that the company is actually located in West Hartford, but it was important for him to be located within Hartford County. “We wanted to attach the Hartford name—I have a lot of pride in Hartford,” he says.

On March 6, Hartford Baking Company announced plans to open a second location on Farmington Avenue in West Hartford Center in the spring of 2016. The new café will feature breakfast items, include a daily happy hour, and stay open late on weekends with the focus on high-quality artisanal foods. The West Hartford Center location will add to the area’s economic growth by employing an additional 20-25 people.

Freshly prepared sandwiches from Hartford Baking Company.

THE BIG PICTURE

In terms of growth, Kluger says that the company’s big focus is on quality, new products, and artistic integrity. “We want to be cutting-edge,” he emphasizes. “We also want to be on the map nationally and internationally.”

CONNECTICUT COMMUNITY FOCUS

In 2008 Kluger’s mother began selling pastries at farmers markets—a tradition the Hartford Baking Company has continued to uphold. The company is strongly committed to the community and is involved in local farmers markets throughout Connecticut including Collinsville, the West End of Hartford, Simsbury, and Coventry—which Kluger is quick to note is not shutting down, as rumored. The town is taking over the market, he explained. Kluger says the Hartford Baking Company will continue building its farmers market presence.

ENTREPRENEURIAL ADVICE

As an entrepreneur, Kluger admits he’s been guilty of being overconfident, but “you don’t know what you don’t know. Unless you’ve run a business in that industry, you’re not going to know how to do it.”

He encourages early-stage entrepreneurs to talk to people in the industry. “Talk to people who are successful. Network. Get involved. Spend a year. Do your research,” he says.

His other tip is to know how to manage your finances. “Ultimately that’s what it comes down to. Do you have enough money to operate? Two words: cash flow.”

Hartford Baking Company is located at 625 New Park Avenue, West Hartford, CT. Learn more about the company, the café, and the products at http://hartfordbaking.com

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Onyx Moonshine: Reviving the American Spirit in Connecticut

February 25 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments

Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price toured Onyx Moonshine’s newly opened speakeasy tasting room in East Hartford, CT, sampled some moonshine and whiskey, and then sat down with Adam von Gootkin, Co-Founder of Onyx Spirits Co. to discuss what it’s really like to be a “moonshiner.”

Adam von Gootkin, Co-Founder of Onyx Spirits.

PRICE: Onyx Moonshine has long history, maybe you can distill it down, sorry for the pun.

VON GOOTKIN: Sure. In the 1860s, my family ran a distillery call Chafee Distilling. It was a legally operating distillery that closed in 1864 because they shipped a large batch of moonshine and whiskey to Canada and someone forgot to pay the taxes.

During prohibition, my family had a hotel in Middletown called the Chafee Hotel, which had a speakeasy in the basement. The family had a ferry run every day from Manhattan to Middletown bringing people— and we imagine, probably booze in as well. That closed at the end of prohibition in 1933. The hotel was sold 10 or 15 years later.

So the family was out of the business for a long time, but now we’re back, we’re legal, and we are here to stay.

PRICE: Whose idea was it to get the distillery up and running again?

VON GOOTKIN: My business partner Pete Kowalczyk and I had a few business ventures in Connecticut; it’s been our home our whole life, and we knew we wanted to produce something here.

We were frustrated that 99% of the liquor people in Connecticut were consuming was imported from all corners of the globe, especially because we used to have such a vibrant distilling economy here. At one point in the late 1700s there were more than 45 distilleries operating in Greater Hartford. Whiskey, moonshine, rum, and gin were being produced here in vast quantities. Prohibition really killed that and destroyed the industry. Now it’s mostly billion-dollar global portfolio companies that own all the liquor brands.

So the idea for us was not only to produce something that was authentic to the area—moonshine and whiskey, which have been produced here in Connecticut for hundreds of years—but also to do something kind of challenging. We wanted to employ local people, invest in the community, have as many local suppliers as possible, and really make our product a Connecticut/New England thing.

And then, finally, we wanted to be the first to produce a classy, ultra-premium moonshine. We’re not packing it full of sugar and chemicals or making it in the backwoods in a mason jar. We wanted it to be high end.

Those concepts together for us have been the key drivers for this venture. Dipping into our own families’ past as well as Connecticut’s to produce one of the only things that is authentically New England, spirits-wise.

The “secret” bookshelf door that leads to the Onyx Moonshine speakeasy tasting room.

PRICE: What year did the distillery actually open?

VON GOOTKIN: Onyx Moonshine started in 2011.

PRICE: And when did the speakeasy tasting room open?

VON GOOTKIN: We celebrated with a soft opening Saturday, November 21, 2015.

PRICE: Tell me about that time between the company being founded and the speakeasy opening.

VON GOOTKIN: It was a two-year process before we opened. It took us about a year to get the recipe right. We researched moonshines from all over New England and historic books.

We did two years of research and development, business planning, and meeting all of the federal and state compliance. Distilleries are very highly regulated by the federal government. Our product represents a significant amount of tax

money, statewide too.

People don’t realize that it’s actually a federal crime to produce any liquor at home. You can make beer and wine at home, but you cannot have a distillery. So there are a lot of regulations.

But there was no language in the legislation to allow a distillery to have a tasting room here in Connecticut. We wanted a way to kind of welcome people into our “home,” educate them about how our products are made, show them how to enjoy them, and just have some fun.

PRICE: And you worked to change the legislation.

VON GOOTKIN: Right. I’m the president of the Connecticut Small Brand Council, which is a group of wholesalers, retailers, and producers, such as distilleries from Connecticut that is primarily focused on ensuring that the legislation is there to support small brands and small businesses from retailers to restauranteurs to wholesalers.

One of our first tasks was to change the legislation that would allow a distillery to habituate with the tasting room on the premise, like a winery or a brewery. Two years ago we got the approval for a tasting room to operate, and then in 2015 we received approval for us to sell bottles here—it would’ve been rather preposterous to have people come in, taste the products, and then not be able to buy them.

At the Onyx Spirits speakeasy tasking room, visitors can taste New England-style moonshine and private barrel whiskey.

So we got that legislation changed. And a big part of our intent in changing that legislation was to make environment here in Connecticut more conducive to having more distilleries open throughout the state.

PRICE: Onyx Moonshine has national acclaim. How are people finding out about the product?

VON GOOTKIN: We have a policy here: we do almost zero traditional advertising. We do not ever run ads. Onyx has always been a word of mouth brand, it’s been organic growth.

I just got a call from a distributor in Georgia that wants to bring us in as a result of customers who have been buying our product online. So, we are available in distribution in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, upstate New York, and now Georgia.

Customers around the country can buy Onyx through a local retail partner in Connecticut that runs drinkbetter.com.

PRICE: So you have really evolved.

VON GOOTKIN: We’ve grown cautiously and we have controlled the growth. We didn’t want to grow too fast because our production capacity is small. We have a commitment—an obsession really—with quality over quantity. So it’s been an organic growth, people telling people, people bringing the product on vacation. People have brought our product around the world and they’re proud of it being from Connecticut

PRICE: Let’s talk about being in Connecticut and how that’s shaping the business. You were saying Onyx is everywhere, but you had a commitment to making it be produced in the Hartford area.

VON GOOTKIN: The Chafee side of my family has been here in Connecticut since the mid-1600s. I think what makes business worth doing is really a genuine commitment to authenticity around the brand. So for us by the creation of Onyx, we wanted to create something that was special and also something that we could all be proud of—that it’s from Connecticut.

Every bottle of our product has a sketching of the Charter Oak tree on it. It’s very much a tribute to Connecticut and the fact that this is such an old state and we’ve got a lot to be proud of.

PRICE: We certainly do.

VON GOOTKIN: In the last four or five years since we’ve opened Onyx I’ve seen a lot of craft brands come out that are doing some great stuff including Peel Liqueur and the Hartford Flavor Company. Even outside of the beverage space there’s a lot of great innovation happening. Hartford Denim Company is a great example.

PRICE: In what ways are you actively involved with the entrepreneurial ecosystem here in the Hartford area?

VON GOOTKIN: I’m on a couple of boards. One of them is the Viscogliosi Entrepreneurship Center at Manchester Community College, which is working to really help inspire other young entrepreneurs in the Greater Hartford area.

And I’m involved in another project called StartUP Bristol where we got $50,000 together for a business plan competition to bring people who have great ideas but don’t have the funds to the table, give them some seed money, and help them get started.

And of course that was my motivation for writing my book, Living Proof: Onyx Moonshine’s Journey to Revive the American Spirit. I wanted to inspire people to take a leap of faith and start their project.

PRICE: Let’s talk about the book. It discusses your relationship to being an entrepreneur and how you’ve merged that part of your life with the history behind your family and the distillery.

VON GOOTKIN: The whole concept with writing the book was to discuss all the lessons we learned along the way. It’s really a great read, especially for anyone who’s trying to get into the beverage industry or really anyone who’s getting into entrepreneurship and not sure where to start. I share a lot of tactics about how to raise money, how to attract a team, all that stuff.

I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life. I was involved with entrepreneurship before I even knew what I was doing. I tell some of the stories in the book. My journey with entrepreneurship has been a lifelong thing. I failed out of college after one semester. I bombed miserably. It wasn’t for me. This is why am spending so much time at the helping other entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is such a valid, exciting, fulfilling career path.

PRICE: And it’s not necessarily a straight shot.

VON GOOTKIN: It’s not a straight shot at all, ever. It doesn’t work that way.

I think the most valuable, successful business ventures usually come from frustration with the way something is done, the status quo—Onyx included. It came from our frustration that Connecticut was importing all of the state’s liquor. Why do we do that when we can make it right here? And we can make it the way we used to make it right here in Connecticut.

PRICE: A lot of entrepreneurs I’ve met have told me, “I wanted to do it better or differently.”

VON GOOTKIN: Absolutely. An improvement on the status quo. Entrepreneurs are expressions of that. We’re creators, we create new realities. It’s like all of the world is a software program and, in my opinion, it’s like entrepreneurs are the ones who are writing the coding for what’s being made tomorrow. They’re the ones who are creating the products and the services that change your life.

Every single creation from the phone in my pocket to the clothes we’re wearing to how this room is heated was driven by entrepreneurs. So entrepreneurs really create the blueprint for daily life, the software mapping of what we experience.

PRICE: What’s next for Onyx Moonshine?

VON GOOTKIN: We’re excited about our speakeasy tasting room. We’re going to be booking bands at some point, and we plan to partner up with some local restaurants for food options soon. We’re also going to be allowing for corporate bookings.

Other than that, we certainly we have a plan for growth and expansion—a controlled plan where really the focus for us is being able to serve our current customers and keep the quality as high as we can. We’ve got some other exciting projects in the works too.

PRICE: Final question. Can you share a cocktail recipe?

VON GOOTKIN: Sure. I actually share a cocktail recipe at the end of every chapter of my book. My favorite way to enjoy Onyx is simply on the rocks: Pour 2 oz. of Onyx Moonshine over ice, sip and enjoy.

Here’s a recipe for a drink that was one of America’s first cocktails during prohibition:

The Bee’s Knees

1 ½ oz. Onyx Moonshine
½ oz. orange juice
¼ oz. lemon juice
1 tsp. honey or honey simple syrup

Shake and pour on the rocks.

The Onyx Moonshine tasting room is open Fridays from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 6:00 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 5:00 p.m.

Living Proof: Onyx Moonshine’s Journey to Revive the American Spirit is available from Amazon.com. Read a book review by Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price.

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Entrepreneur Brewer: Brewery Legitimus

February 12 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: beer, brewery, Connecticut, entrepreneur, Farmington Valley, New Hartford, small business, startup success

Chris and Christina Sayer plan to open Brewery Legitimus on Route 44 in New Hartford, CT. (Photo courtesy John Fitts, The Register Citizen)

Brewery Legitimus recently received funding and plans to open its doors in New Hartford, CT in 2016.

According to the brewery’s website, “Our mission is to provide the craft beer drinkers of Connecticut with high-quality, innovative artisanal Belgian and American style ales created and brewed with an attention to detail and balance.”

Brewery Legitimus Founder Chris Sayer—who has more than 12 years of experience in the beverage industry—claims that living abroad in Belgium sparked his passion for good beer. Sayer.

Recent coverage from John Fitts in The Register Citizen provided details about the brewery’s choice of location in Connecticut’s Farmington Valley and its future plans. Read the complete article.

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